In general, Data as a Service (DaaS) allows data to be delivered to any device at any time or place. Prior to DaaS software and data were combined. A user desiring certain data would purchase proprietary software linked to the data provider. However, advances in how data may be delivered to users have created a market simply for the provision of data. DaaS separates the application employed in consuming the data from the actual data itself. A data provider is now able to provide their data as a service, allowing users to choose to consume the data in any manner they desire. A substantial area of growth for DaaS is in the provision of multimedia content (e.g., text, images, audio, video, etc.). The expansion of broadband coverage worldwide, along with increased wireless data delivery speeds, has allowed DaaS content providers to deliver instantaneous or continuous (e.g., streaming) data to users in any location (e.g., via wired or wireless communication) with high quality. As a result, demand for this type of content delivery has grown substantially.
At least one issue with delivering multimedia content via DaaS is how to protect the content being broadcast. The elimination of proprietary presentation software (e.g., content presentation clients) has standardized how the content is delivered. For example, Advanced Video Coding (e.g., H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10) supports content encryption that was designed based on a point-to-point security model. Employing this model in a broadcast environment may allow for Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks wherein unauthorized users may intercept and rebroadcast the content in a manner that may be detectable to the content provider and/or the authorized user. Overall, the multitude of content delivery scenarios possible under DaaS introduces security and privacy threats that previous systems did not envision. These issues may be compounded by rights issues for licensed content. For example, it may be possible to overcome digital rights management (DRM) for licensed content in existing DaaS systems.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.